Sydney: Showers in the Vicinity 23ºC | 19ºC

or use

Bright Shiny Morning - James Frey

Bright Shiny Morning - James Frey

First published on 16 Jul 2008. Updated on 20 Apr 2010.

Given that his first two books of ‘autobiographical memoirs' - A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard - were exposed as largely made up, you'd think James Frey's first official work of fiction would be an absolute belter.

And it doesn't disappoint.

Bright Shiny Morning is a screamingly ambitious portrait of modern Los Angeles featuring a cast of thousands.

Principal characters include a closeted gay movie star, two teenage dropouts, a Chablis-swigging wino and a Mexican maid.

But Frey never really solders these narratives together and jumbles things further with a landslide of civic trivia.

The result is messy, predictable yet totally addictive.

More book reviews and literary events in Sydney? Sign up to our weekly newsletter

By Bianca O'Neill

Print
Email

Readers' comments

Community guidelines

blog comments powered by Disqus

© 2007 - 2012 Time Out Group Ltd. All rights reserved. All material on this site is © Time Out.